Quick Shots: Opening up offense a good move by Packers’ Mike McCarthy

Saturday

Jul 19, 2014 at 3:10 PM

By Matt TrowbridgeRockford Register Star

The Super Bowl champion Seahawks ranked 30th in the NFL in number of offensive plays per game. The 49ers, who knocked Green Bay out of the playoffs and almost beat Seattle, were 31st. When the Packers led the league in plays in 2006, they finished 8-8. They were 4-12 the previous year when they ranked fifth. Green Bay has fallen to an average of 17th the last four years, yet made the playoffs each time and won the Super Bowl ranked No. 22.

So naturally, coach Mike McCarthy wants the Packers to speed up and run 75 plays a game, which would have led the league last year.

But logic says he is right to do this despite what the stats say. McCarthy has often been too conservative, but it makes sense to give Aaron Rodgers the same number of plays as Tom Brady and Drew Brees (the Patriots and Saints both usually rank in the top three). Great quarterbacks are greatest when the shackles come off.

Oldest & youngest

Hui Chong Dofflemyer became a bit of a celebrity at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links because she was the oldest player (45) in the field and paired with the youngest, 11-year-old phenom Lucy Li.

“She is 11 years old, but her game is not,” Dofflemyer said.

Salley Wessels said she was going to tease Dofflemyer because she also got singled out for being the oldest and playing with the youngest when she played a practice round at the Publinx with then-12-year-old Michelle Wie 12 years ago.

“They wanted me at the scorer’s tent,” Wessels recalled. “It was a big deal because I was 66. It just torqued me. It was the first time I became age conscious.”

Anti-All-Stars

The Sporting News put out an anti-All-Star team of regular starters with the lowest wins-above-replacement scores at their positions. The surprise was the Cubs and White Sox only had one each on the team: catcher Tyler Flowers (.218, .273 on-base, 5 HRs) and right fielder Nate Schierholtz (.204, .250 on-base, 5 HRs).

Schierholtz is a free-agent and won’t be back next year, but catcher has been a huge hole for the White Sox since A.J. Pierzynski left two years ago and could remain one; their best minor league catching prospect is 17 years old.